Disposable diapers for infants and incontinent people are a major industry, and, as such, constitute a crowded art, competitively speaking.
In general, they comprise an absorbent pad assembly having a liquid impervious backing sheet, an absorbent pad in a crotch portion of the diaper, and a liquid pervious cover or front sheet.
In general, the prior concepts for providing liquid impermeability suffer from the following deficiency: inability to prevent edge leakage through the side edges of the crotch area to soil the leg, clothing, bedsheet and/or other surrounding articles.
With respect to the latter, the prior art, as exemplified by the patent literature, also discloses the separate concept of providing barrier strips and the like along the edges to prevent this edge leakage. Illustrative patents providing such means for preventing edge leakage include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,349,769 issued to Piekarski; 3,572,342 of Linquist et al.; 4,610,682 of Kopp; and 4,804,379 of Toth et al.
The present invention relates to a disposable diaper which prevents edge leakage in an improved manner, the diaper being characterized further as being of an elegant and cost effective design which permits the use of less expensive materials in the manufacture of the backing sheet.